John Schwatschke

b. Dublin 1943, Austro-Irish parents, known as a Carlow portrait painter due to his family home being there since his father’s arrival in 1926.
After secondary school at The King’s Hospital, the artist studied briefly at The National College of Art, Kildare Streetm Dublin (art and architecture) and as a draughtsman with a prominent Dublin architect. Also studied portraiture under Franz Erhmer in Munich. Originally interested in musical composition for pianoforte, his first art patron Pres. E. de Valera persuaded him to give up music for art: “Do one thing and do it well, and I believe that should be art”.

Piano recitals: 1970 Corballymore House, Waterford; 1971 Château d’Artigny, Tours; 1972 Hotel Trois Couronnes, Vevey.

1968-70 Studied at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
1970-79 Administrator, Art & Property Interests for US Patron, Geneva, Paris, Montecito, Calif. (Studio Mongins, rented from French singer Serge Reggianni, neighbour of Picasso, Notre Dame de Vie).
1976 Establishment of Le Musee Schwatschke, Valbonne as a Cultural Centre, with encouragement of Paris agent Iris Clert, Peter Wilson and Prof. J. Lanthemann (Modigliani biographer). Transfer of project to Ireland, built near the artist’s Carlow home, opened 1981 by the Austrian Ambassador Dr. J. Nestor and Susanne McDougald as a provate museum, exhibiting the artist’s works and El Greco, Picasso and Modigliani. Closed 1994.
Retrospective Exhibitions: 1954-94 Le Musee Schwatschke, Carlow; 1954-2004, Eigse Carlow Arts Festival.
Academic portrait sittings, President E. de Valera (Chancellor, DUblin University), HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (Patron, American Club London) Ingrid Bergman, Cyril Cusack, Bernadette Greevy, Noel Purcell, Archbishops Simms & McAdoo, Harold Robbins and Robert Mitchum among others.
1980-85 Project manager for King Fahad’s banker Sheikh Mahfooz, Jeddah (SR 15m & SR 20m) in Saudi-German joint venture.

The artist in his studio in Mougins, 1975

John Schwatschke

left his home town of Carlow in 1968 to travel widely, after studying art and architecture in Dublin and Munich. While his main hobby was musical composition (three piano recitals, Waterford, Tours & Vevey) it was his meeting with Irish President Eamon de Valera which changed his course. The President said “Do one thing and do it well, and I believe that should be art.” In 1970 he met his American friend and patron Frances, who encouraged his portraiture and visited the major art collections and museums in Europe, while renting a studio Le Vieux Mas from French singer, Serge Reggiani at Mougins, who was a neighbour of Picasso. It was Picasso’s son who showed the artist his father’s archives, which became a basis for his own archives of over 2,600 recorded works since school days. All the artist’s works continue to be numbered and recorded in archives of Le Musee Schwatschke, making it easier for future researchers. In the mid 1970s Le Musee Schwatschke was established with the approval of the Mayor of Valbonne as a cultural centre for the town and to exhibit some 200 of the artist’s works. On the Board were Peter Wilson (Chairman, Sothebys) Prof. Josef Lantheman (Biographer, Modigliani) and the artist’s Paris agent Iris Clert (also agent of Yves Klein. However, the French Ministry for Museums blocked the project and the artist transferred the collection to Carlow, which opened in 1976, as a purpose built private art museum.

Styles of Painting over the Years

I. Mainline Academic Portraiture
from 1961 onward

II. The Constructed Visage
A series of ‘constructed’ portraits based on geometrical calculations, for gonache drawings 1979/80

III. Trees
Experimental gonache landscapes 1977/80

IV. Caricature Sketches 1965-75

V. Caricature Portraits from 1966

VI. The Development Portrait
A more relaxed style of brushwork in the academic work, as in No. 885 of Sir John Gielgud, generally used from then on.

VII. Studies of G.B. Shaw Series 1967

VIII. Studies of Holes
Paintings of the surrounding canvas 1997

IX. Painted Script:
Philosophy in the Third Dimension
a. The Painting of ‘Merrygoround’, the artist’s thesis of life as a merry-go-round.
b. ‘The Discovery of Nothing… what it isn’t, a similiar thesis, painted in script, for which the artist gained recognition as an author.

X. The Free Flowing Line
A continuous line drawing as a basis for the portrait subject. 1981 onwards.

XI. Sculpture
bronzes from 1994 onwards.

Past Patrons

Portrait painter to Heads of State, Film Stars, Church Hierarchy, Sheikhs and distinguished patrons.
H.E. President Eamon de Valera as Chancellor, National University of Ireland
Ingrid Bergman, London
Harold Robbins, Beverly Hills
HRH Duke of Edinburgh as Patron, The American Club, London
Archbishop G.O. Simms, Primate of Ireland
Archbishop H.R. McAdoo, Dublin
Robert Mitchum, Motecito, California
Bernadette Greevy, Mezzo-Soprano, Dublin
Cyril Cusack, Actor, Dublin
Noel Purcell, Actor, Dublin
Lunia Czechowska, Modigliani’s Model, Nice
Prof. J. Lantheman, Biographer, Modigliani
Sheikh Mahfooz, Jeddah

Literature

1970 Interview with the Artist / Z. Medlow.
1994 Schwatschke Biography, Mary Robertson, Minerva, London/Washington ISBN: 1 86106 23 8
2020 Schwatschke, Love, Murder and Sudden Death.
Le Musée Schwatschke. ISBN 978-1-5262-0831-6

TV

RTE Nationwide 2010

The artist painting a portraint in Jeddah, 1981

The artist treking through the desert near Mecca, 1980

The Elpis Nursing Home, 20 Lower Mount Street, Dublin where the artist born — The Elpis Nursing Home, 20 Lower Mount Street, Dublin where John Schwatschke was born, 1943, and where Johm Millington Synge died in 1909.

23 Westland Row, Dublin where the artist had his studio, and where President de Valera sent his Chancellor's gown, through the Provost of the University Dr Wilmot, to complete his portrait.